Educational Science

Biggest Melt Comes From Smallest Glaciers

The big glaciers of Greenland get most of the attention in terms of global warming's impact on melting and rising sea levels, but it's actually the little glaciers that count the most, a new study finds. Satellite observations of the Greenland Ice Sheet indicate that nearly 75 percent of the...

Extinct Giant Tortoise Could Be Revived

An extinct giant tortoise could make a comeback now that living turtles in the Galapagos Islands have been confirmed as hybrid descendents. Researchers had previously scratched their heads over the group of mixed-ancestry tortoises living on the island of Isabela in the Galapagos. But the connection to the extinct species...

A prehistoric predator that looked like a big crocodile paddled around the Antarctic region 240 million years ago, sporting sizable fangs not only along the edge of its mouth but also halfway down the roof of its mouth. The newly described freshwater species, Kryostega collinsoni, is a temnospondyl, a once-diverse...

Ike Underscores Foolishness of Building on Barrier Islands

Update: The Latest News of Ike's ImpactImage Gallery: Ike's FuryAs Hurricane Ike pummels the Texas coast, the only thing standing in the way is a thin stretch of land called Galveston. Galveston is a barrier island, a narrow landmass made mostly of sand that extends along a coastline parallel to...

100 New Sharks and Rays Named

More than 100 species of sharks and rays have been classified and named as new species, including some that had been discovered as far back as the early 1990s. The new namings and classifications are the result of an 18-month Australian project using DNA analysis to clarify the identity of...

Scientists Predict the Next President

Two mathematicians have devised what they say is a surprisingly effective means to predict the outcome of the U.S. presidential election using median statistics based on voter polling. In a paper in the journal Mathematical and Computer Modeling, Wes Colley, of the University of Alabama, Huntsville, and J. Richard Gott...

Boss' Gender Can Affect Workers' Stress

Bosses in general can be a pain in the … well, you know, but a new study finds that your boss’ gender can affect just how much pain he or she seems to inflict. Researchers at the University of Toronto used data from a 2005 national telephone survey of working...

Neanderthal Brains Grew Like Ours

Score one more for Neanderthals. A new study has found that Neanderthal brains grew at much the same rate as modern human brains do, knocking down the idea that they grew faster in a style considered more primitive. The recent discoveries of two very young Neanderthal skeletons, as well analysis...

How an Eggbeater Could Power the Future

Editor's Note: Each Wednesday LiveScience examines the viability of emerging energy technologies — the power of the future. From Holland, the country famous for its windmills, comes a new design for home wind power. Looking like an eggbeater, it spins quieter and at lower wind speeds than a lot of...

The Flip Side of Flip-Flopping

The economy has brought the dire state of the American financial markets into the public's consciousness with sharp focus—along with the presidential candidates' positions on the issue. When insurance megacorporation AIG requested $85 million in taxpayer bailouts, John McCain stood firmly against it, saying We cannot have the taxpayers bail...